Thawing a frozen Rose ch2
by CrimsonBlizzard
Summary: We delve into Sasuke's dark mind, and the bloody history of the Uchiha in this chapter. Partake in this tale, and truely see what Sasuke is and how his mind got so twisted. R&R please!
1. Chapter 1

Thawing a frozen Rose

The pale king watched from his window as the bobbing lights of torches carried by his soldiers disappeared into the forest that surrounded his castle like a silent army. His onyx eyes flashed crimson in anger as he remembered the reason why he had to send his guard, his personal infantry, out into the unforgiving wilderness in the first place…

"Milord…all the new dogs you have ordered have been poisoned…just like the last pack…" the servant had said not but a week ago, kneeling fearfully before his king. "And more chickens have been stolen yet again."

Just a week ago, the latest band of robberies against the Uchiha, Sasuke the Dark King, the very last of his families vampyric line, was the last. Sasuke decided that the string of crimes, a string that had gone on for almost a month, had gone on long enough. He had grown tired of the thieveries, and now, sending his personal guard would hopefully do the trick. He was going to catch the culprit and make him, or her, pay. With interest.

This thief had stolen his livestock, poisoned pack after pack of dogs and wolfhounds, and practically spat in his pale face. Oh yes, this thief would pay a very dear price indeed.

"Uchiha-sama." A servant walked in and bowed as the last of the lights disappeared into the forest. "You're meal has been prepared and is waiting in your dining chambers."

Sasuke allowed himself a small smile. Without turning to the servant, he said "You are dismissed." in a stern tone that did not betray his smile. The servant obeyed the order in a hustled hurry, causing the smile to grow a bit larger on Sasuke's face. He may be having trouble with a thief. That trouble may have been great enough to where he had to actually organize a group to go out and track the thief down. But never in his life had he had any trouble with dealing with his faithful (though most likely just fearful) servants.

Moments later, Sasuke entered his dimly lit dining chamber, beholding a young pink-haired, green-eyed girl awaiting him, sitting at the end of a table with only a few small candles sitting upon it. She watched the candles, not knowing that the Uchiha had slipped in.

Ah, so even the proud Haruno family wanted to be in his good graces now? Where they, actually, hoping that he would wed the young girl instead of drain her? It so, it was quite a foolish thought.

Even though he wasn't interested in her in the slightest aside from the way a hungry man would behold his diner (which was what Sasuke, in context, was doing), Sasuke had to admit that the girl was not hideous by any means. Her pink hair flowed in a glistening pink waterfall that nearly passed her shoulder blades, and her eyes glowed in the sparse light the candles provided. They were able to keep the shadows that were concealing Sasuke from claiming her lovely visage, though Sasuke was not in need of the candle's assistance to gaze upon the face and take in every detail.

Sasuke crept behind the girl, making no more noise than the darkness that very nearly dominated the room. Despite his movements, the girl was still oblivious to his presence, and continued to stare at the candles as she waited for him to make his entrance.

"I have yet to learn your name." he said, not loudly, but made it so that the girl would be able to hear him clearly. The pink-haired youth jumped and gave a small shriek of surprise, getting out of the chair and turning to see who had spoken. And though he could have done so easily, Sasuke didn't wipe the amused smirk off of his face when she got a good look at it.

And when she did, she couldn't help but give a light gasp as she set her eyes on the face of the Dark King. His fair skin looked as if it were made of fresh snow bathed in moonlight, his cheekbones high, his nose straight, and his eyes lined with full thick lashed, and seemed to go on forever. They were accented in an almost art-like manner by straight ebon hair that looked as if it was silk woven from raven's feathers.

The face was enough to grab the girl's attention from the start, so much that she didn't even make a quick sweep with her eyes over the ornate robes he wore to cover his body, not even taking the time to guess what it looked like underneath the undoubtedly expensive fabric.

But once her eyes truly met his, it was over for her. Her mind became nothing more than a useless haze as Sasuke looked back down into her eyes.

"I still haven't learned your name." Sasuke said softly. "S-Sakura…" the girl whispered. "That seems quite appropriate." Sasuke said with a light chuckle as he reached out and stroked the girl's pink hair lightly, moving it so that her neck was exposed.

"Thank you…" she muttered politely as Sasuke leaned down. Sasuke took the smallest of sniffs, finding the girl's scent to be full of youth and health, perfecting the image of life. In other words for the Uchiha, ripe.

Sasuke's cold fingers brushed Sakura's warm cheek, sending a weak shudder down the young girl's spine. Her knees weakened, so much that Sasuke had to loop one of his arms around her slim waist to keep the mortal from falling into a pink-haired heap onto the stone floor that was just as cold, though much more merciful, than Sasuke's own heart.

The girl, to Sasuke, was as light as a rabbit, and he could feel that her heart was beating just as fast as one. Sasuke's eyes flashed red once more, but this time, it wasn't in anger. It was in nothing but pure hunger as he looked down upon the girl's smooth exposed neck.

Sasuke's other arm wound itself around her shoulder and allowed his long pale fingers to wind themselves into the cheery blossom-hued locks, and in doing so exposing more of the girl's soft flesh.

It was then that Sasuke knew that Sakura was officially nothing more but putty in his dangerous hands. It would be so easy to crush the life out of her, to snap her in half, to break every bone in her young body. He chuckled darkly, dipping his head so that he could kiss the spot where Sakura's jugular vein was closest to the surface.

A euphoric moan passed through Sakura's lips, and if there was anything still solid in the girl's spirit or mind, it was obvious that it, if it had existed in the first place, had melted like butter over a raging bonfire.

Sasuke had been waiting for this, this exact moment. It was the moment that he always waited for : the complete surrender. Although there were times where Sasuke loved nothing more than a good struggle, he felt just as powerful when he was able to lull his victim into a trance that only preceded a calm, painless death that his prey was unable to even know about, an end they were completely unable to see.

Sasuke took another breath, taking in a taste from the perfume of life that surrounded and came from the girl in floods. It was youthful, fresh, and completely pure, not a single bit contaminated by disease or genetic defect. It was perfect.

'It is time.' It didn't come in words, but it was a phrase that the Uchiha was able to understand it all the same. It was the language of his hunger, a dialect that he was able to understand as soon as he was reborn, or to the mortals, turned. It was as much a part of him as the very icy blood that ran through his veins.

At first, when Sasuke had hit Uchiha "puberty", he wasn't able to control his hunger. Anything with a heart beating warm blood was fair game in his book, and his family didn't mind. He was a fledgling, and such rampant attacks and feeding sprees were nothing more than purely natural.

But now, the Uchiha was mature. He was seasoned, and was able to control his urges until HE decided it was the right time, HE decided the right place, and HE decided the right victim. He watched and waited, looking for what he really wanted to plunge his fangs into. There were times where he had taken a drink from something truly unsavory, and he had paid for his impatience.

"Yes…it is…" Sasuke replied, opening his mouth and licking the same spot he had kissed not but a moment before. Sakura moaned again, and her face flushed. She reached up and held Sasuke weakly, a titanic feat on it's very own, a feat that barely any others in her state would have been able to accomplish.

"It most definitely is." Sasuke murmured with a grim smirk as Sakura unknowingly embraced her own death. Sasuke opened his mouth a bit wider, exposing fangs, like the rest of his teeth, that seemed to be made of the very pearls of Heaven itself, and they were poised over the girl's throat, hovering like twin ivory daggers.

"Good night, young blossom." Sasuke said softly, petting the girl's pink hair, pressing the tips of his fangs against her throat-

"Milord! The thief, he has been caught!" A servant burst into the room, right before Sasuke's fangs broke through the girl's skin. Sasuke paused, but not for long.

He drew back and looked into the girl's dull eyes. His own flashed crimson with the power that he had developed, the power that his family had cultivated and perfected generations before he was even born. "Sleep." he said, and Sakura fainted immediately. Sasuke dropped her, letting the mortal crumple into a heap on the stone floor.

"Have her moved to one of the guest rooms." Sasuke said in a tone that said that he only wanted the girl to be kept fresh, and didn't give a damn if she was comfortable or not.

"And have the thief moved to the judging chamber." he said to the servant as he moved past him.

Sasuke didn't care about the girl. He never had. As far as he was concerned, she could be dropped out in the ditches lining the manor and end up as food for the wild dogs or a whore for the local scum. She wasn't important.

Because, for Uchiha Sasuke, the Dark King of Konoha, his prey always came before is toys.


	2. Chapter 2

Thawing of a frozen Rose ch2

Sitting in the judging chamber, Sasuke felt empowered. This room, on that was almost the size of a full ballroom, was the place where his power truly mattered, where it truly came to play.

Because, in Konoha, everyone know that coming into that room meant that they wouldn't come out the same, or wouldn't even come out alive at all. For minor offenses that didn't really cause any true harm to the throne, posed no threat of rebellion or insubordination, Sasuke would simply send out a group of soldiers to punish the offender publicly or haul them off to either a jail or manual labor camp.

So, in turn, the Dark King never got his hands dirty. He never delved into the needs of the community, never really cared about those subjects aside from them being pawns and toys put on the earth for his own amusement. But when he himself felt personally wronged, Sasuke didn't allow anyone but himself to deal with the problem. And when he set his mind onto a task, whatever it may be, it got done, and got done quite efficiently.

Or slowly, if he wanted it to take time. By nature, Sasuke was a cold-hearted fiend. And, by the teachings of his family, a cold-blooded sadist. He knew how to inflict pain, her knew how to make pain last, and he knew how to do both with an expert hand and an unforgiving mind.

It was in the judging chamber did Sasuke punish those her felt were worthy of his time. And the poor unfortunate souls could have really done anything. Sasuke could have caught wind of them talking bad about him, or they could have attempted a rebellion, or, in his newest quarries case, stolen from him. Depending on their attitudes, he would choose his weapon, his tool for torture. Depending on their crimes, he would choose his method. And, depending on how much they amused him during his painful, sometimes crippling, administrations, he would choose whether to let them out of the room alive or not.

Along the walls of the chamber were various weapons and other tools that were specifically made to inflict bodily (and in the process mental and emotional) harm and damage. There were few that the Uchiha hadn't used on more than one occasion. Each and every weapon, tool, or device and tasted human blood, and through them Sasuke might not have only gotten a snack, but a feast of fear that his victim provided. For this wasn't supposed to be a meal that replenished his body and kept him strong physically, but a feast for the darkest parts of his mind, heart, and soul (though there were many heated debates that Sasuke didn't have one) to gorge themselves in.

Sasuke never had a particular favorite weapon or method of torture. Nor did he ever find a tactic or tool that he disliked. For Sasuke, it was the players and the pieces in this game of his that made the whole things so enjoyable, per say, but the personal delight her took in hearing the screams of pain his victims brought through their lips and the blood that flowed liberally out of their skin, and most of all, the feeling of victory when they finally started to try and beg and barter with him.

Those were the individuals that were killed during the first session. Those that didn't, those that kept firm with their will not to turn into a blubbering puddle, those were the ones that Sasuke ended up torturing and playing with night after night, until their body gave up and they perished, they went insane, or they found some way to commit suicide during the day so they wouldn't have to go through another night of Sasuke's "games."

And that was why he was sitting in the judging chambers, dressed in pure white cotton robes and sitting on a plain oak throne. He was waiting for the next of the "true" law breakers, the thief that had eluded his capture for so long. He wanted to make this person scream their throat raw, scream to the point when pieces of their throat would start to come up through their throats and splatter onto the stone flooring in a bloody mess. Sasuke wanted to rip the thief to shreds, stitch him or her back together, and repeat the entire process a thousand times fold and then some.

Sasuke was undoubtedly excited about meeting the thief. He truly was. He wanted to see what made this person so talented as to get through his gates, past his guards, around his dogs, to his livestock, and back out with more than what he came with. Yes, he wanted to rip all of that from his or her mind.

And, of course, what gave this apparent idiot the idea to steal from him in the first place! And, as well, that they could even get away with it! Nobody wronged Uchiha Sasuke, the Dark King of Konoha! No one! Not one person, or even a thousand. Which brought the idea to Sasuke's own mind. What if it wasn't just one thief? What if it was more than one? It was plausible, considering that each time the thief, whoever he or she was, left with enough food, whether it be chickens or bread or vegetables or grain, to feed an entire band of thieves.

That didn't matter. It was insignificant in reality whether there was one thief or twenty. Sasuke knew that his mean had caught the one responsible for, the one that had taken what was his. And for that, Sasuke would make this person pay so dearly, he would still feel the pain his body felt when he or she was finally granted passage to the afterlife.

Sasuke looked around the judging chamber. What would he use tonight on this new prisoner? A bludgeoning tool? Something sharp, perhaps? Maybe a poisoned dagger, one dipped in a toxin that would make the sliced area to slowly rot on the victim's very bones? The choices were endless, and Sasuke was a very imaginative immortal.

And, as everyone knew, an immortal had all the time in the world to do what it wanted. And Sasuke wanted to make sure that whatever he was going to do to this very irritating offender last for quite some time.

Of course, he didn't have to use anything on the walls of his chamber. He didn't even have to use anything on the physical plane of reality. The Uchiha line was powerful, and not because of the title, the royal seat, that it held. In fact, if it wasn't for the power in their blood, the genetic weapon coupled with the vampyristic genes they had acquired centuries ago.

Uchiha Madara, the vile, and powerful, founder of the Uchiha clan, was ambitious and wanted to make his family the greatest, most powerful force in the world. At that time, the world was engulfed with fighting and other large families that were making grabs for power as the Uchiha clan was. Some where bands of battle wytches that made a family that had no real power other than the spells that they used to destroy their enemies, while others were actual old families with powers that had been passed down through the blood of their ancestors and to their descendants. So, even though the Uchiha clan was powerful in both martial prowess and special abilities, they didn't have an upper hand even with all of that, and were in just as much a threat as being toppled over and destroyed, just as everyone else was.

And so, Madara took great lengths to make his family as strong as he could make it. It was rumored that he sold his own soul to a devil, and in return that same devil made him and his relatives holding the Sharingan, the family's bloodline power, the most deadly of all creatures to walk the night : vampyres.

With that, the Uchiha family gained power and control and an exponential rate that none of the other families could match or compete with, all the while gaining the respect of the magical and spiritual beings such as demons and other creatures, as well as the battle wytches that were bred from the human race, who, in turn, grew to fear the Uchiha family.

Before Madara had changed his family and their future, a band of battle wytches was all they were, spilling the blood of their rivals and being cut down by others, staining the grounds of the world with the blood of enemies and their own. But all of that changed when Madara did what he did. Now the Uchiha was the definite top of the food chain in that world.

The family had been of a special breed, even before the Great Turning as some had called it. Their ability, the Sharingan, enabled them to cast lifelike illusions with the literal blink of an eye when others had to enact the spells by a combination of hand signs. There were even a talented few in the family that were able to make their illusions so lifelike, so fantastic, they could cause a person to claw their own skin off in the mad delusion that there were serpents lacing themselves under their skin along with their veins and arteries.

But with Madara and his newfound dark knowledge he had acquired in the Great Turning, he was able to perfect the ability and pass it on to his brethren, his now vampyric kin. Now nearly all of the Uchiha could form the most horrific fantasies in another's mind, as well as also instill false memories and bend their prey's mind. And all of that with simply their eyes.

With that, the Uchiha clan earned a new name for themselves : the House of the Basilisk. With their heightened abilities, each was much like the mystical being. For making eye contact with an adult Uchiha was the same as making eye contact with a basilisk : it always meant certain death.

Madara disappeared shortly after the family had risen to power. Rumors of him tracking and taming the nine legendary beasts, the Bijou, spread, but nothing was ever confirmed. The great leader just dropped off of the face of the planet, leaving the family to it's own devices.

Surprisingly, Madara's absence didn't change anything for Uchiha, other than giving them a need for a new leader. And, of course, one came, but he was killed in a battle with another leader of another powerful family. And so, leaders came and went, either being slain or stepping down when a more capable leader arose. Sometimes, there would be a whole Uchiha council leading the family, sometimes consisting of more than five individuals organizing the Uchiha's conquest and rule over their growing territory.

Eventually, Sasuke's own father came to power in the Uchiha line. He had another son, Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother and role model. Itachi was a practical shoe in for the crown, being far more powerful in both the fighting arts as well as the illusionary than the elders of the Uchiha line. It was said by some that he could be just as powerful as Madara. He was the one that was supposed to take the crown and lead, not Sasuke.

But things don't go as planned. That might as well be the world's one real truth. Things don't go as planned, and people don't act as they are supposed to.

Sasuke narrowed his dark eyes as he remembered the dark stormy night of his brother's cold-blooded betrayal. Bodies were strewn in the castle like nothing more than heaps of gory trash and lakes of Uchiha blood flooded the corridors and rooms and soaked the soil of the gardens on the grounds…

Sasuke shook his head, as if doing so would clear the memory from his dark mind. That was the past, and nothing from it could touch him now. He was powerful, he was strong. And Sasuke would get stronger, more powerful still.

Itachi was definitely like Madara in the aspect that when he changed the Uchiha family right before he disappeared. But, unlike his ancestor, Itachi's changes were far more on the negative side. Madara had made the Uchiha line the greatest of all time, but Itachi had destroyed it, his killing spree making it very likely that Sasuke and Itachi were the only Uchiha's left alive. There might be others scattered out in the country, out in other parts of Uchiha territory, but who was to say that Itachi hadn't traveled out there and slaughtered them too?

"It doesn't matter now…" Sasuke muttered quietly to himself. "One day I'll find that bastard Itachi, and that day will me his last. He will pay for what he did, for what he destroyed, for what he left me. Yes…he will pay dearly for this…" the last few words came out in an almost serpent like hiss as Sasuke's rage spiked, but it was quelled immediately by a noise that he had been waiting for.

It was dull at first, muffled by not only by the large oak door that was the only entrance and only exit for the judging chamber, but also by sheer distance. The sound was, of course, a small chorus of yelling, cursing, and screaming that sounded miniscule even in Sasuke's powerful ears. The sound, of course, made a gradual crescendo as the party in question came closer and closer to the door.

Sasuke grinned as the voices seemed to come directly from the other side of the large double doors of the judging table, and it sounded like the person they brought was quite energetic with his struggling and cursing.

"Enter." Sasuke called out, grinning triumphantly and hoping that his order was loud enough to be heard through the door and over the prisoner's protests. He hated to repeat himself, even if it was, in fact, actually needed. The doors began to open, and Sasuke wiped the triumphant grin from his pallid face, making it nothing more but an emotionless mask as the doors opened even more to reveal the person that had caused Sasuke so much trouble and stress…


End file.
